Blanks Between the Lines
by 4thFromTheFurnace
Summary: Dear Beloved Brother, I'm writing you this letter to inform you of my wedding. Your Loving Sister, Serenity. Postmarked: KaibaCorp.


** Part of my Christmas Gift Fic Bonanza! It is a bit obvious from the excessive cheesiness and the fact that I am on this site that I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!.**

"For heaven's sake, Mai, why do we got so much stinkin' junk around here?" the blond young man growled, tossing pointless garbage around the room.

His dashing female companion sighed from her place on the loveseat, flipping through a magazine, "Darlin', I believe that's all your 'stinkin' ' junk."

He growled again, disatisfied with her reply. It was only a few moments before he started mumbling something under his breath that was not even comprehensible to feasible words. Mai ignored him, turning another page and scanning her eyes over the cute but overexpensive shoes that the magazine boasted.

Her eyes shifted over to him when he stopped mid-mutter and stared silently at something in his hands. She knew it was only a matter of time before she found out what it was, knowing him the way she did. Sure enough, after a moment of silence, she was greeted with an answer, of sorts.

"Mai, what is this?"

Said duelist uncrossed her legs and stood, slowly meandering over to the crouched form on the living room floor. She scanned her eyes over the envelope as a coy but innocent smile crossed her face, "Oh! That...Hun, that was just, uh...well, that was...I thought it was a subscription renewal for a magazine, so I sorta...stashed it away until I had a chance to look at it."

Her partner frowned at her, "Mai, you know we can't afford any more magazines! We can barely even afford your wardrobe! And for the amount of money we spend on that, it sure doesn't cover as much as it should!"

Mai pursed her lips tightly, her voice raising to extremely unpleasant irritation, "Now, see here, Mr. Wheeler, I pay good money for good clothes! The least you could do is appreciate what I go through to impress you!"

For a second he tilted his head and gave her his classic perplexed stare, "Mai, I-"

"Oh, shove it, Lame Brain, before I use your mouth as your sock drawer and find a new place to hide your underwear." she huffed, crossing her arms. He bit his lip, a slight blush tinging his cheeks as he cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the envelope in his hands. After a momentary pause and Mai positioning herself to look over his shoulder, he showed no mercy or hesitation in ripping open the envelope.

If she wasn't preoccupied with the contents of the plain white envelope, she probably would have scolded him for making such a mess, but then again, Joey was Joey after all.

His curiosity raging around like a whirlwind inside his head, the blond duelist hastily took out and unfolded a piece of fine paper from the envelope. His dark brown eyes scanned over the overly neat and delicate handwriting. He turned his head to glance at Mai, a soft but slight irritation in his voice due to the fact that Mai had the letter hidden away for who knows how long, "It's from Serenity."

Mai frowned, trying to disguise her confusion and slight guilt, "Just read it, Blond-for-Brains."

Joey turned his attention back to the letter, now extremely curious as to what news had come from his little sister.

_ Dear Beloved Brother,_

_ This is the best I could manage at the moment, my life has been pretty busy lately. I can't wait to tell you about everything! I also can't wait to hear how everything's going for you all out there! _

_ I know that you're somewhere out west right now, so I don't want to bother you too much. I just wanted you to know that whatever you're up to, I'll be right with you all the way. It seems like forever since I heard from you last. _

_ I just now got your new address, so I hope you'll be able to stay there a while so I can actually talk with my big brother. How are you doing? And how's Mai? Tell her I said hello and I can't wait to get down there sometime to see you both!_

_ Anyway, to get to the basic point of my letter, I wanted to inform you and invite you to my wedding. I'll write again soon to give you the details, please send your love and support! _

_ Love always, _

_ Your little sister, Serenity._

Joey Wheeler sat on the floor staring at the unfolded letter in shock for almost five minutes. Finally, Mai turned her gaze from the letter to her companion, "Joey?" her concerned voice asked. After a few moments, he finally responded, "I can't believe it."

Mai's expression softened as she stooped beside him, "Oh, Hun..."

Joey snarled, "I can't believe she didn't even tell me who this guy was! She didn't even tell me his name!"

The young woman by his side bit her lip and pointed a finely manicured finger to the back of the envelope, "Sweet Cakes, the envelope. It's postmarked KaibaCorp..."

Joey huffed, "Yeah, so what? What does that have to do with..." he paused. Mai could have sworn she saw sparks going off in his head as he connected the dots. She gave a deep breath and covered her ears.

"Say WHAAAAAA?!!"

---

The young brunette shifted in her seat, "Um, are you sure this is..."

"You could have said no." his cold response retorted.

She diverted her eyes to the window, which was just about the only interesting thing in the room that didn't have anything to do with him, "I just...I don't like lying to him like that."

His blue eyes shot from her to his paperwork without answering. She gave another sigh, propping her elbow on the arm of the chair and leaning her chin in the palm of her hand, "Do you think he's gotten the letter yet? It's been a few weeks..."

Seto Kaiba's irritated glower answered her question.

No.

The girl squirmed again, causing Kaiba to narrow his eyes at her, "If you keep prattling on and squirming around like that, you can say goodbye to your only method of communication."

She sucked in a breath and held it for a few moments, staring at her lap as she tried to will herself to be still and quiet.

Miraculously, the obnoxious sound of the telephone on Kaiba's desk rattled the uncomfortable silence. The young CEO picked up the phone and waited for the person on the other line to talk.

She faintly heard the feminine voice of one of his receptionists on the other line, "Mr. Kaiba, there's a 'Joseph Wheeler' on Line One, he says he won't get off the phone until he speaks with you."

Serenity gulped once, leaving her mouth very dry as she watched an extremely smug, dangerous, and devious smirk began to crawl across Seto Kaiba's lips. A cold, tense chill shot up Serenity's spine. It was the look he gave when he knew something his opponents did not, and was just about to obliterate them to smithereens, so to speak, of course.

It was obvious when the receptionist put the call through. She could hear her brother's voice miles away, especially when he was in his overprotective-angry-big-brother mode.

Why did she agree to this again? Oh, right. While trying to pay her way through college, she had no money whatsoever to eat, let alone communicate with the outside world. As a last glimmer of hope, she thought that maybe, as an old friend of her brother and his friends, Seto Kaiba, with all his tons upon tons of money, would be able to help her with room and board at least.

Some glimmer of hope. Now here she was, stuck in Seto Kaiba's office, watching him smirk with that evil countenance of his as he listened to her brother rant.

Of course, having an accord with Seto Kaiba required something in exchange. In exchange for paid room and board as well as any letters or phone calls, Serenity was required to commit every waking moment that she was not in college to working for KaibaCorp. But of course, for Mr. Kaiba, that wasn't enough. She was required to help him pull stunts like this whenever he had a whim. Of course, she was told that they would never really get married, and that this was just a "publicity stunt". She still could not understand what was so appealing about making other people miserable, but for some reason, Seto Kaiba had a taste for it.

With an occasional snarky remark here and there, conversation between Kaiba and Joey continued as usual. Joey would ramble remarks and insults which never made any sense and Kaiba would put in a stabbing overconfident unnecessary jab at Joey's pride, or, in this case, custody over a certain young brunette.

She knew that she owed Kaiba big-time, but this was ridiculous. Kaiba had consulted critics and professional 'proofreaders' to make sure her letter had all the right implications. Which, by the sound of Joey's voice, it did.

The telephone conversation promptly ended with Kaiba's haughty remark, "See you at the ceremony, Mutt-face. Then again, maybe not."

He quickly hung up the phone as his dark, ice blue eyes travelled back to her. She tried not to squirm under his gaze, but no matter how Seto Kaiba looked at someone, it always made the person uncomfortable, unless they were used to it by now.

Serenity was almost accustomed to it, but this look was different somehow, and it completely terrified her.

---

"I can't believe that oversized pompous windbag hung up on me!" the blond growled, now sitting sideways on the couch while Mai massaged his shoulders.

"Cool down, Hun."

"How can I cool down when my only little sister that I worked so hard to fight for is going to prance off into the sunset with HIM?!!" Joey's hands clenched into fists, his knuckles beginning to turn white.

Mai's hands moved from his shoulders to wrap gently around his neck. She whispered a soft "Shh" in his ear and let her right hand travel slowly through his hair.

Joey's breathing slowed as he fiddled with the rings on her other hand. As she brushed her fingers through his hair, he gave a low grunt, trying to protest but failing miserably, "Mai..."

As he turned his head to face her, she put on one of her rare smiles, "Hun, don't worry about Serenity. She's a big girl now. If this is what she wants for her life, then maybe you should take a step back and see what kind of castle she builds for herself. Knowing Serenity, even if she doesn't understand what some people do, she continues to have faith in them. She'll be fine."

Her scarlet lips curled into a mischievous smile, "Besides, right now, Hun, you need to tend to your own castle."

---

Serenity gave a sigh, closing the office door behind her. She was ultimately confused. Kaiba didn't say anything more after he hung up on her brother, he just dismissed her.

As she was on her way out, a voice caught her attention, "Excuse me, Miss."

A woman stood up from her desk and handed a small, square package to Serenity, "From Mr. Kaiba, Miss, with a request that you respond with haste."

Serenity's first thought was that Kaiba's 'request' would undoubtedly be more of a demand. Any thoughts after that became a blur. Finally, Serenity spoke, taking the tiny object gently in her hands, "Um, do you know why Mr. Kaiba seemed...um...grumpier than usual today?"

A badly hidden smile crossed the secretary's lips, "Mr. Kaiba's just irked because he can't call you 'Wheeler' anymore."

**Not so prevalent in the cheesy department, this is. At least, compared to most of my fanfictions. I really enjoyed writing it though, it was a lot of fun. Drop me a few words if you'd like or if it's confusing to you. Tootles and God bless you! Praying for ya!**


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